Supreme Court Rejects Trump Appeal of E. Jean Carroll Lawsuit, Putting Sex and Advice Writer on Verge of Collecting Millions

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it will not hear President Trump’s appeal of the $5 million judgment he owes the sex and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, a decision that could bode poorly for his chances of avoiding a total bill of some $100 million.This petition for certiorari was denied without any public reasoning or listed dissents. At issue was a jury’s verdict from 2023 that held Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing and then defaming Ms. Carroll following what she alleges was a non-consensual encounter at a Bergdorf-Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. The $5 million has already been transferred to a court controlled account, so Ms. Carroll is likely to be paid with dispatch. In January 2024 a second jury found Mr. Trump liable for $83 million after finding that he further defamed Ms. Carroll when he accused her of lying about the alleged encounter. The presiding judge, Lewis Kaplan, declared from the bench that Ms. Carroll did not fail “to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’” The jury, though, declined to find him liable for legal “rape.” Mr. Trump’s obligation to pay Ms. Carroll has been paused pending his appeals. With interest, the total is more than $100 million.After the high court declined to take up Mr. Trump’s request for review, the president’s legal team denounced Ms. Carroll’s case as a “Democrat-funded travesty” and vowed that “President Trump will keep winning against liberal lawfare.” Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, declared in her own statement that “today’s ruling ends” Mr. Trump’s “quest to avoid accountability for his actions.”Following the Supreme Court’s decision Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS.” The $5 million judgment was granted to Ms. Carroll after Mr. Trump called her claims a “hoax” and a“con job” and asserted that “This woman is not my type!” Ms. Carroll borrowed that phrase for her bestselling book, “Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President,” out last year. She wrote an advice column for Elle for nearly three decades as well as a biography of the Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Mr. Trump’s legal team had argued to the Supreme Court that “it is deeply damaging to the fabric of our republic for President Trump, in the midst of a historic presidency, to have to take his focus away from his singular and unique duties as chief executive to continue fighting against decades-old, false allegations and the myriad wrongs throughout this baseless case.” The Supreme Court reviews only a fraction of the thousands of petitions it receives. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have signalled their intention to appeal the $83 million verdict, which was upheld by a three judge panel of the Second United States Appeals Circuit. The Second Circuit denied Mr. Trump’s request for an en banc hearing, meaning consideration by the full circuit. Mr. Trump argues that because he was president when he denied Ms. Carroll’s claims, he ought to be able to substitute America as the defendant in the case. That would effectively end Ms. Carrol’s chances to collect her award because longstanding precedent holds that the government cannot be sued for defamation. Mr. Trump’s prospective appeal to the high court with respect to the $83 million verdict is also likely to argue that Judge Kaplan erred in allowing into evidence Mr. Trump’s “Access Hollywood” comments that surfaced during the 2016 election. Mr. Trump’s lawyers call those remarks “highly inflammatory.”The Second Circuit, though, determined that those comments pointed to a “modus operandi” or “corroboration” that was germane to Mr. Trump’s liability in these cases. In her book, Ms. Carroll, now 82 years old, writes that “a woman is never too old to get even.”

Supreme Court Rejects Trump Appeal of E. Jean Carroll Lawsuit, Putting Sex and Advice Writer on Verge of Collecting Millions

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